First Movie Review- Sucker Punch

BACKSTORY (from ign):
(Close your eyes. Open your mind. You will be unprepared. "Sucker Punch" is an epic action fantasy that takes us into the vivid imagination of a young girl whose dream world provides the ultimate escape from her darker reality. Unrestrained by the boundaries of time and place, she is free to go where her mind takes her, and her incredible adventures blur the lines between what's real and what is imaginary. She has been locked away against her will, but Babydoll (Emily Browning) has not lost her will to survive. Determined to fight for her freedom, she urges four other young girls--the outspoken Rocket (Jena Malone), the street-smart Blondie (Vanessa Hudgens), the fiercely loyal Amber (Jamie Chung) and the reluctant Sweet Pea (Abbie Cornish)--to band together and try to escape their terrible fate at the hands of their captors, Blue (Oscar Isaac), Madam Gorski (Carla Gugino) and the High Roller (Jon Hamm). Led by Babydoll, the girls engage in fantastical warfare against everything from samurais to serpents, with a virtual arsenal at their disposal. Together, they must decide what they are willing to sacrifice in order to stay alive. But with the help of a Wise Man (Scott Glenn), their unbelievable journey--if they succeed--will set them free.)


First off, let me say that i am glad that this movie in particular is my first review, i think you will really get a good grasp of my tastes in movies and how i look at them by reading this review =).


Okay, i knew from the first moment i saw this trailer that i would without a doubt enjoy this movie, however the reasons why i would enjoy did not make themselves apparent until i actually watched the film. Also, i knew that i would be one of the only who genuinely like this movie without marking it off as some anime- wannabe imitation crap. I will split this review up into sections for the sake of organization of my thoughts and clarification for my readers X3.


STYLE:
i was actually surprised at the style of this movie. I was under the impression that it would have some kind of ridiculous bright cliche back story about a fantasy world being torn apart by war or some such nonsense, but this was not the case. The style was that of a fantasy, but it was very dark nature, you could obviously tell it was fiction from the first few minutes in, but not from the actual movie images, but rather from the FEEL of it. and to me it is very rare to find a movie that immerses you in the feel for the movie and has you interested before the action even starts. The transitions between reality and fantasy are done in quite a unique fashion in this movie, so that even in the over the top anime style settings, you still know that its the story and you know that the action portrayed is an essential part of the main story because it keeps the same dark-ish style (more on transitions later).


ACTING:
Was great for this type of movie, meaning it was not a performance worthy of best actor or actress, because the majority of females played the same role (the role of a woman who just wants to escape) however you could tell that each actress had a unique personality and as such none of the characters blended together. I loved seeing Scott Glen in this movie, playing a wise old man  and he is a joy to watch XD. I must say that even Vanessa Hudgens did a good job, i was not disappointed with the acting job in this movie , for all the performances went along perfectly with the story, a harmony usually found in movies people consider much better than this.


EFFECTS/ACTION:
These two items go hand to hand in this movie. The CGI played a big role in all the action sequences due to all the action taking play in a fantasy world. They effects were bold, well designed and looked amazing. At the same time the models off all the enemies did not stray to far from pre-conceived notions. By this i mean that the dragons looked like dragons we have seen in harry potter, robots looked like that we have seen in terminator or Irobot, and the settings did not stray from the average design of castles and battle zones. I believe this was done to make people focus not on the actual setting of the fantasy world, but the story and action taking place inside of it, to make an illusion within the fantasy that connect the styles of the reality and fantasy worlds together more intimately.


EXTRA:
I would really like to point out that I love how the creators of this film USED the action and fantasy. To make the fighting in the fantasy world a symbol of the main character "dancing" was not how I expected the movie to go at all, while others might condone this i commend it for being a unique way to use something i thought would be cliche. To make it more simple, i guess its just saying that the fantasy action is a more dramatic form of the real world situation is something that appeals to me because i have a flair for the dramatics =).


OVERALL/FINAL THOUGHTS:
I read reviews for this movie and as I suspected, not a lot of people liked it. they criticize it for being degrading toward women by portraying them as eye candy, to this I reply, if you actually WATCHED the movie you will have noticed the girls work for a brothel, and often times do not have a lot of clothes on. This is simply the setting of the movie and is should be no more criticized than the female characters of mortal kombat. In my opinion if you are going to see a movie, know what your going for, you can obviously tell from this movies trailer that the women in it would not be wearing a lot of clothes (again due to them working and living in a not so reputable environment) and if you dont like that, dont watch the movie, simple. All in all, i liked what this movie tried to do and how it tried to do. but as I stated earlier, I did not watch this expecting an Oscar nominee, I expected a simple poorly told action movie, and I actually got more than what i asked for. So do i recommend this movie? Yes, for gamers, action fans and anime fans, but if your the type to nitpick every little detail of a movie, you might want to skip this one ;)